A Good Goodbye - Ducati Reveals the Panigale 1299 R Final Edition

Photos by Greg Sharp

This past weekend at the Laguna Seca WorldSuperbike round, Ducati showcased its newest sportbike – the Panigale 1299 R Final Edition. The “Final” part is in its name is because this will be the last superbike to possess the V-twin engine. The new Ducati was first showcased in front of US media the previous Friday, July 7th, at the Spanish Inn in Pebble Beach, CA. Claudio Domenicali presented the bike specs and features, while both Chaz Davies and Marco Melandri officially unveiled the bike.

The Final Edition’s engine is derived from the Superleggera's. It produces 209 hp at 11,000 rpm, and produces 104.8 ft-lbs of torque at 9,000 rpm. It shares the same chassis and suspension as the Panigale R and is equipped with an all-titanium Akrapovič exhaust that has a high dual silencer, making it Euro 4 complaint. The new Panigale also comes with a lighter crankshaft, titanium con-rods, and tungsten balancing pads. The overall dry weight comes in at 179kg — not as light as its Panigale predecessors, but overall light for a high-performing liter bike.

The Final Edition has all the fancy technology that the Panigale is known for — it comes with Bosch Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), ABS, Ducati Wheelie Control EVO (DWC EVO), Ducati Traction Control EVO (DTC EVO) and Engine Brake Control (EBC). You can change the riding modes to Race, Sport, or Wet, and it can also be personalized as desired.

The Final Edition will only be available in the tricolor scheme, but that’s not really a bad thing since it screams, “I’m a sexy Italian beast.” To celebrate the new Panigale’s launch, Aruba-it WorldSuperbike racers Chaz Davies and Marco Melandri showcased a “special livery” of the bike during races 1 and 2 at Laguna Seca.

As previously mentioned, the Final Edition is the last of Ducati's V-twin superbikes. The rest of their lineup will still possess this engine configuration, though. Moving forward, Ducati top tier superbikes will possess a V4 engine, the mill that's currently used in Ducati’s MotoGP bikes.

“We have a great deal of experience in MotoGP with this engine configuration," said Ducati CEO Chaudio Domenicali when asked about the switch. "And we are actually very happy with the result that we were able to achieve in terms of weight, driveability, torque. So we thought, at a certain point in time, it would be nice to make this experience available to customers.”

Domenicali also stated that the Final Edition will be an extremely limited edition bike of around 500 units.

“Of course, if the demand is higher, we can actually get to six or seven hundred. There will be less than 1000 for sure."

Each Panigale Final Edition will also be individually numbered. The final price for the US has yet to be announced, but in Italy the bike will be sold for 40,000 Euro. The price is definitely steep for this Panigale, but considering there will be limited quantities and the fact that it’s the final V-twin being made in this engine displacement, this bike can be considered a real gem. Who knows, it might be worth double, triple, quadruple the price in a few years’ time.

Check out the below video to see Chaz Davies and Marco Melandri rip around on the new Panigale 1299 Final Edition.